The present invention relates to an improvement in a damping mechanism for a tone arm.
To obtain good reproduction characteristics with a tone arm system, it is necessary to apply damping forces to the arm within the arm's rotary support structure in both horizontal and vertical directions to prevent resonance in either direction.
Previously, single point support-type tone arm structures have been known which by their very nature prevent multi-directional resonance from arising. However, in the case of the more preferable two point support-type tone arm, for example a gimbal-type tone arm, heretobefore independent damping mechanism had to be provided for each of the horizontal and vertical directions. As may readily be appreciated, the resulting structure was quite complex requiring many mechanical components and was correspondingly costly. Because of the complexity and the dual orientation, leakage of damping fluid was frequently a problem.
Thus, it is an object of the invention to provide a tone arm system having a damping mechanism capable of providing damping in both horizontal and vertical directions.
It is further an object of the invention to provide such a tone arm damping mechanism which is simple and inexpensive in construction and which utilizes only a single mechanism for both horizontal and vertical directions.